It’s safe to say the city of Denver won’t see a coach quite like Doug Moe again.

Anyone who dealt with Moe while he coached the Nuggets would say the people of Denver should be so lucky. A planted dig such as that would bring out the best in Moe. Before the conversation ended, somebody would be called a “big stiff.”

But for nine-plus seasons, Moe and the Nuggets were more than relevant on the Denver sports scene. After taking over for Donnie Walsh 31 games into the 1980-81 season, Moe posted a 432-357 coaching record. During that span, the Nuggets made the postseason nine consecutive years, reached the Western Conference finals in 1984-85, won two Midwest Conference titles, led the NBA in scoring six times and set a franchise record of 54 victories in the 1987-88 season, after which Moe was honored as the NBA coach of the year.

“The players we had, the people in the organization made my 10 years in Denver so much fun,” Moe said last week from his home in San Antonio. “There wasn’t a situation until the end where I felt uncomfortable. A lot of the people from my time in Denver are good friends and I see them from time to time.”

The impressive numbers during the 1980’s earned the Nuggets a huge following. If their fast-paced play and high-scoring games didn’t draw in the fans, Moe’s presence and personality took care of any shortcomings.

Bill Hanzlik, who played for the Nuggets from 1982-90, puts his old coach in a category all his own. Hanzlik became a pet target of Moe’s motivational skills that at times were heard throughout McNichols Sports Arena from the end of the Nuggets bench. Moe could be unconventional in his game strategy too. On one occasion against the Los Angeles Lakers, Moe had the 6-foot-7 Hanzlik guarding 7-4 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

“Doug wasn’t from a different part of the universe; he was from a different galaxy that no one else has touched,” Hanzlik said. “He played the game with simplicity, but he could motivate the heck out of his players.”

Moe was a genius with numbers and it helped him as a coach. He could be given two lines of five digits each verbally and multiply the two lines in his head.

When he got his break to coach the Nuggets, it came at the expense of Walsh. The ties weren’t set aside easily.

“Donnie was a friend of mine,” Moe said. “We had talked about the possibility of something happening so it wasn’t a shock. It was hard.”

It was Moe’s second go-around with the Denver franchise. He had been an assistant coach on Larry Brown’s staff in the ABA days and one of his players was David Thompson. Thompson was a Nuggets mainstay when Moe replaced Walsh.

But on Christmas Day 1981, the two clashed. Thompson showed up late for practice and Moe sent him home, with a suspension to follow. The Nuggets traded Thompson to the Seattle SuperSonics the next summer.

But maybe the biggest “happening” off the playing floor during Moe’s tenure was a blockbuster trade that sent Kiki Vandeweghe to the Portland Trail Blazers for Calvin Natt, Fat Lever, Wayne Cooper and two draft picks June 7, 1984. Vandeweghe was highly popular with the Denver fans while teaming with Dan Issel and Alex English.

“It was a trade you had to do no matter how much you liked Kiki,” Moe said. “We were able to get some players we really needed. If Calvin Natt had been able to stay healthy, the trade would have been over the top.”

The new Nuggets made it to the Western Conference finals the next season, losing to the Lakers in five games. Moe looks at the 1984-85 season as the highlight of his coaching career.

Five years later, Moe’s time with the Nuggets ended. A change in franchise ownership brought in new faces.

“You don’t like to get fired no matter when it happens,” Moe said. “I wasn’t too unhappy about being retired, so to speak. It would have been a tough situation. Things just weren’t the same.”

Moe is home in San Antonio and talking about how tough it is not to work. He and “Big Jane,” his wife, are embarking on a cruise this month. Then he’ll find time to come to Denver for a few days and watch the Nuggets.

He can’t remember how or why he started calling people “stiffs.” It’s his trademark.